meow meow meow meow

It’s probably just me, but this is the first thing I thought of when I saw the Emerson Quartet album cover.  Then I giggled a lot.

May 30th was the annual Kansas City Rockfest put on each year by 98.9.  Just a few thoughts since I didn’t end up staying that long.

First off it was hot.  Really hot, like Tattooine.  I decided to go this year because I figured it wouldn’t be too hot at the end of May.  I certainly learned my lesson on that.

So anyway, I packed up my sunscreen, one unopened water bottle, and a camera (as per the rules they posted) and went on my way.  The concert was at Liberty Memorial, but I ended up parking at Union Station for $20.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was like when you’re in Vegas and you think you’ll walk somewhere because it’s only a few properties down the strip.  Even though they’re right next to each other it takes forever to get from one to another - probably a good 20 minutes.

One of the interesting thing was the number of scalpers buying and selling tickets.  It was around 3:30 and things started around noon, so the $40 face value tickets were now being sold for $20.  On top of that, the scalpers were buying people’s tickets for $10 so they could sell them for $20.

Once I arrived at the concert I was suprised by the sheer number of people.  Obviously 50,000 tickets sold is a lot, but it’s one of those things that doesn’t click until you see it in person.

There were plenty of beer tents serving crappy beer so there wasn’t a wait for that.  There weren’t as many concession stands and someone told me it was a 45 wait in line to get a hot dog.  Here’s another thing - they kept hyping that no food or drink would be over $5.00, which turned out to mean that EVERY food or drink item was $5.00, including the cup of lemonade I got.

I was supposed to meet a couple of people at a specific spot but couldn’t find them.  I went to go check out Parlor Mob’s set on the second stage.  I didn’t expect much that early in the day but they were really good - a solid blues based hard rock band that really seemed to click.  I ended up ordering their album from Amazon based on the strength of their set.  They had a pretty small crowd in front of the stage which was suprising based on the sheet number of people there.

After that finished I moved over to check out Corey Taylor’s set.  Despite owning two Slipknot albums I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of them or Stone Sour but there was a lot of talk about his first solo show.  He pulled out a few suprise covers like Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” and the “Cheers” theme.  His set was good, but not great.

After his set I found the people I was supposed to meet.  However, I was nearing the end of my day when something in the air scratched my eyeball.  It was killing me so I decided to leave and let the good Dr. McKeon look at it.  Apprantly what I should have done was fashioned an eye patch to cover it so I could have stayed.  Anyway, I got some numbing drops and I was happy.

I left during Shinedown’s set and from what a lot of people were saying, they were the band everyone wanted to see, even over the headliners.

One other interesting thing is that as I left (somewhere around 6:45).  I saw lots of unused tickets on the sidewalk leading up to the Liberty Memorial and even saw a small stack stuck under a minivan’s rear windshield wiper.

So that was it.  However, I do have a plan for next year:

1.  DO NOT buy tickets ahead of time.  Don’t fall for the hype of it being sold out.

2.  If it’s too hot, just stay home.  If the weather is nice go and pick up some cheap tickets from scalpers.  If that doesn’t work out just go see a movie or something.

I told myself I would write this up within a day after the concert, so here it is nearly three weeks later.

Within the past year and a half or so, I’ve seen Queensryche three times now.  In early 2008 they played the Voodoo Lounge in Kansas City with Don Dokken opening with an acoustic set.  Queensrcyhe played a great set, playing songs from all their albums with a lot of lesser-known tracks thrown in.  Everything clicked for them that night and the crowd was really into it.

Back in the fall they played a radio station’s Halloween concern with Tesla.  The crowd was absolutely insane and their set focused mainly on their hits.  A good show, but not as good as the one before.

When I heard they were coming again in April I wasn’t sure if I was going to go.  For some reason a lot of shows had been booked on the same night - Lamb of God/Children of Bodom/God Forbid which would have been nice to see, and also Reverend Horton Heat in Lawrence which would just be down the street for me.  I decided on Queensryche mainly because some friends were going and also due to the set that was planned.  Queensryche had posted on their website that the tour would consist of songs from three of their albums:  Rage for Order, Empire, and their new one, American Soldier.  Rage for Order has always been my favorite Queensryche album and has always been woefully under-represented in concert, so that clinched it for me.

The order of the three albums wasn’t hard to guess - they started off with Rage for Order.  The first thing I noticed is that Queensryche has now become one of those bands that adds extra people on stage - since the departure of their latest guitarist they’ve replaced him with a non-member guitarist and a guy playing keyboards and guitars.  In almost every case where this happens it bugs me.  They didn’t need anyone previously, and the addition of the extra people makes it feel like I’m seeing Queensryche featuring Geoff Tate instead of Queensryche the band.

Despite my gripe, everything sounded good.  They played six songs from Rage then started with the songs from American Soldier.  I only had the album for a week or so before the show so the songs hadn’t grown on me, but the songs from it sounded much better live than the studio versions.  Unlike a lot of older bands, the crowd seemed to be into the new material which is cool.  Geoff Tate even made a comment about it and you could see that he appreciated it.

Finally they wrapped up the show with songs from Empire.  Even though there are certain songs that you know they’re going to have to play (”Silent Lucidity”, “Jet City Woman”, and “Empire”) they still pulled out some songs that I hadn’t heard them play in a while.  For the encore they played “Take Hold of the Flame” and “Empire”, wrapping up a great show.

Here’s the complete set list:

Neue Regel
The Whisper
I Dream In Infrared
Screaming In Digital
Walk In The Shadows
I Will Remember
Surgical Strike
Sliver
The Killer
If I Were King
Man Down
Dead Man’s Words
Home Again
The Voice
Best I Can
The Thin Line
One And Only
Hand On Heart
Silent Lucidity
Jet City Woman
Anybody Listening?
————-
Empire
Take Hold Of The Flame

Out of all the hard rock bands that were big in the 80s, Queensryche is one of the few that can still pull it off and don’t feel like a nostalgia show.  They’re still putting out new material and the shows don’t feel like they’re just going through the motions.  They played for over two hours, which is nice considering a lot of bands like to pack it in after just an hour and a half.  Three times in a year and a half may be too much in too short a time, but I’ll definately check them out in the future.

It is a shame you have a McLaren as the manager of England.  We had one of them once, he was a cunt too.

…

You know, blokes or girls, you all like to suck on my nipples.

- Johnny Rotten, from the live Sex Pistols DVD There’ll Always Be an England

In less than two weeks Rockfest sold all of its 50,000 tickets, and according to the site it’s the biggest one day music festival in the United States.

There’s a lesson here to radio stations and promoters but somehow I doubt it will take.  I’m not the biggest fan of KQRC, but they’ve done an outstanding job building up an audience and promoting their shows.  If I recall correctly when I moved to the area ten years ago it was being held in Sandstone which holds around 18,000.  

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out with a crowd this size.  I”m curious when the busiest time will be and how many people are going to stay all day.  It starts at noon but there’s no way I’m going to make it all day.  I’ll probably end up showing up around five and leaving toward the end of Korn’s set, depending on the size of the crowd.